SciArt Magazine Volume 25August 2017Table of Contents

Cover image: "Soleil de minuit" by Adrien Lucca.

Letter from the Editor

As you may have heard, this August is our four year anniversary. The past four years have been amazing, and it has truly been an honor to work with, and share the work of, so many incredible artists, thinkers, and creators. It seems that the more we publish, the more there is to publish about - the third culture, the science-art convergence, the bridge between disciplines is here to stay.​To celebrate, we decided to publish two issues (because two is more fun than one). In addition to our standard issue, giving you the latest in the science-art world (see below), we also produced a special topics issue on the STEAM education movement, which you can read here. As for this issue, it's a summer of artist residencies, Arctic explorations, public art projects, and artist-scientist collaborations. And since there's quite a bit to read this month, I'll leave it here.

As always, happy reading, and feel free to submit your ideas or content for consideration in future issues.

Find out about international residency opportunities for artists interested in science and technology, for creative professionals in the arts and sciences looking to expand their practice, and for those looking to actively collaborate across the arts, sciences, and technology.

STRAIGHT TALKLight & color with Adrien Lucca

​||Julia BuntaineI started to work seriously on these subjects in 2008-2009, while I was student at ERG in Brussels. At that time, I wanted to find a way to make visual art with a “musical” and “mathematical” logic: I was searching for a visual media that I could manipulate with numbers. Sound is easy to manipulate using numbers (frequencies, speeds, rhythms) and values (volume, compression levels, etc.). I wanted a language to “compose visual music”...

CURATORIAL"Art’s Work in the Age of Biotechnology:​Shaping Our Genetic Futures"

​||Hannah Star Rogers"The man in a dark loose shirt leans over a pile of plastic pipette ends, carefully squeezing the contents of one into a gel electrophoresis casting tray. Then he stands up to adjust his lapel microphone. He explains that his work both illuminates how gel electrophoresis operates and critiques our assumption that a sample is analogous to a DNA “fingerprint”...

SPOTLIGHTI Am by Andrew Rogers

​||Andrew RogersOne of the sculptures that comprises We Are – my installation on view parallel to the Venice Biennial – is the maquette for the 10.5 meter high I Am commissioned for Kazakhstan. This is my largest cast bronze sculpture to date. It stands within the grounds of the Astana 2017 Future Energy Expo as a focal point against the backdrop of the expo’s main pavilion...

STRAIGHT TALKAnts & icebergs with Brittany Ransom

​||Michal GavishI absolutely see my practice and processes as an extension of this connection between art and technology design and a larger vision. I have always gravitated towards using processes and tools that are necessary for my final vision of the work. I have been lucky to have worked and be taught by artists and researchers who are willing to break down the barriers of white gallery art...

​||Joe FergusonDespite much lip service given to the idea of bridging academic disciplines, there are few meaningful examples. There are the one-hour panel snoozers with frequent, unheeded calls to action. There are the self-initiated, under-funded collaborations that culminate with more investigation is warranted. And there are the entertaining, but scientifically-profane endeavors of grant-hungry art institutions. But meaty, provocative examples of scientific-artistic collaborations are hard to come by...

ON SCREENthe uncommon by Adam Fung

STRAIGHT TALKMedicine & sculpture with Justus Harris

​||Jennifer Roche​Multidisciplinary artistJustus Harris has a front-row seat to how interconnected our bodies and technology are becoming: he has insulin dependent diabetes and will soon begin using an artificial pancreas. His experiences living with diabetes inform and permeate his art, and they’ve led him to collaborate with physicians, patients, and medical researchers...

QUICK VIEWPixel Paintings with Laurentiu Todié

​||Julia BuntaineTodié's paintings give us the minimum necessary information to recognize an image, an impressive feat of human visual perception neuroscientists have been studying for decades. From the recognizable full canvas to the pure abstraction of color up close, Todié's work can be read on multiple scales..

LISTENINGMusic of Reality produces "Beauty from Nothing," an EP

Where does beauty come from? Did we invent it, or was it always here - a property of the universe? At this moment, astronomers and particle physicists are drawing closer and closer to an explanation of our beginnings: how the universe transitioned from nothing into something. Perhaps, in the interaction of quantum chaos and physical laws, the seeds of beauty can be found...

FROM THE LIBRARYRadiographic, a monograph by Steve Miller

​||Julia Buntaine"Radiographicis hot off the press from artistSteve Miller, a "founding father" of the science-based art movement (and previously featured SciArt Magazine artist), who has been working with scientific imagery for over three decades. Highlighting his more recent work, Radiographic is a collection of his X-Ray based mixed-media works, largely focused on the flora and fauna of the Amazon...